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Here are the reasons for Metadata management
Data Quality
Data quality is driven by a common set (and common understanding) of data standards, domain standards, business rules etc. (please refer Data Quality Assurance for the detailed list). If the systems follow the common standards (creating same checks, controls, table structure, field definitions...) there can be a big gain on data quality. Metadata repository:
- Provides the details on the data standards to follow
- Enforces the adherence to the standards as defined in the repository.
IT systems productivity
Given that data standards, business rules, and models etc. exist in the metadata, one builds productivity on following counts:
- Automatic creation of the tables and models: Systems can pick-up the details from the metadata repository and build the components. This will save time and effort to firstly creating the models and then build them.
- Avoid cost of mistakes and iteration: One may not have to go through the pains of change controls, if your design is built from common standards
Avoiding duplication
If data is available in the system, one does not have to re-create it. If you are looking for ‘sales productivity MIS’, you may find it (OR something close to it) by searching through metadata. This gives a boost to the business effectiveness as other-wise, they will need to wait for their turn in the queue. This also helps in focusing the resources on fulfilling new business requirement, instead of re-creating the old ones.
Avoiding information conflict issues
By using metadata repositories and enforcing common standards and calculation formulae, the reports and dashboards will have a greater probability of reflecting same figures. This will avoid board room time waste on find which are the correct figures.
Regulatory compliance
With all the above benefits, one can expect that business will be able to produce correct reports faster and cheaper.
Business Process Management and its cascading impacts
With every change in business processes, one can find the cascading impact on various components like policies, business process documentation, business rules, configuration and set-up changes in IT systems . For example if a new business process allows a sales manager to manage more than one outlet, it will have a cascading impact on the set-ups, software changes, ETL and dimensional models..
Handling any kind of change management
Whenever anything changes with-in an organization environment, metadata repository helps you to understand the impact. For example, if you want to change ‘maker checker’ control policy, Metadata repository will be able to tell you on which all systems, database, business processes you have to change.
Better estimations and business case management
With metadata repository telling you the impact of a requirement and also providing some efficiency gains, one can do a better estimate of the cost of making a change.
Making scalable and extensible models
This is not a direct benefit of Metadata repository, but it supports it. Smart modelers (with solid business knowledge), can help create models (for example Foundation Dimensions and Facts in Dimensional Model of a data warehouse) which can quickly respond to the changes. A metadata helps you to manage this modeling.
Reduce redundancy
With all the data elements maps stored in the metadata repository, one can identify the redundant data and processes, and work on their reduction OR elimination.
From the above-said benefits, one can understand that Metadata management is core to building intelligent and high-performing enterprises. It benefits all facets of an organization including business process management, BI, IT management, performance management and so on. There is a cascading impact on better business performance, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.
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